Thursday, 30 March 2017

“We came as immigrants, and this country has given us so much,” Mrs. Ansari said in an interview ahead of the announcement. “We want to give something back to America, but also to humanity. We want to promote the idea of equality.”

On Friday, the Ansaris announced a $15 million gift to theUniversity of Notre Dame, one of the top Catholic universities, to create the Rafat and Zoreen Ansari Institute for Global Engagement With Religion. The institute will aim to deepen knowledge of religion and look to explain how the traditions and practice of various religions influence world events.

“Whenever you get a gift of this size, it’s tremendous, but particularly to have this named for the Ansari family, who is Muslim, is tremendously meaningful to us,” said the Rev. John I. Jenkins, the president of Notre Dame, in an interview. “We believe religion is very important in our world. It can have a negative impact, but it should be possible to study the ways religion can be a force for human development and peace.”

Father Jenkins said the institute would look at religion not through a sociological or political lens, but through one focused on the religions themselves.

While the couple and the university said the gift, which was 18 months in the making, was not conceived as a way to make a political statement, all parties acknowledged that it came at a politically charged time, given the debate over Muslim immigration in America and Europe.

“In the last couple of years, the majority of problems have been created by the misunderstandings among the religions,” said Mr. Ansari, an oncologist and hematologist. “Is this the right time for the announcement? Yes, because there is so much going on.”

Friday, 24 March 2017

A campaign, led by the British Muslim community, to raise money to support the victims of yesterday’s terrorist attack in London has raised over £7k in around two hours.

Muslims United for London, the group behind the effort, saw the rush of donations soon after they set upthis fundraising page.

It is understood that the funds collected will be used to support the victims of the attack in Westminster and their families. The death toll currently stands at three and a terrorist, 40 people are thought to be injured too with seven being in critical conditions.

“The British Muslim community stands with the community during these difficult times,” Muslims United for London said in a statement today. “We extend support in raising funds to help with the immediate, short-term needs of the families of Keith Palmer, the other victims and the families of the victims.”

Thursday, 23 March 2017

A woman arrives at a poll station to cast her vote in the Dutch general election in The Hague, Netherlands on March 15, 2017

The war did little to soften Dutch imperial ambitions. In 1946, while Nazi leaders faced prosecution in The Hague in the Netherlands, Dutch soldiers were rounding up and slaughtering Indonesian freedom fighters in abrutal counter-insurgencydesigned to take back control over their former colonies. Indonesia has claimed that 40,000 died after World War II in a years-long killing spree by the murderousDutch captain Raymond Westerlingon the eastern Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

But while the Netherlands’s historical intolerance of Islam and suppression of Islamic practices and movements in their colonies are a matter of record, many Dutch have yet to grapple with their nation’s colonial legacy. Henk Schulte Nordholt, professor of Indonesian History at the University of Leiden, said that Wilders’s rise reflects the Dutch people’s ignorance of their own history. After the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, the Dutch empire “was the biggest Islamic empire, without many people in the Netherlands really realizing that,” he added.

There has been some progress. The Dutch government has begun paying modest reparations to some of the widows of Indonesians executed during the Netherlands’s attempt to recolonize Indonesia after World War II. But this is only a first step. “We tend to discover new cruelties in our colonial past and then instantly forget it so next year there is a new revelation and new discovery. It’s a very structural amnesia.” Contributing to this amnesia is the fact that only a small number of Indonesians moved to the Netherlands after the 1960s, making the country’s colonial legacy even less apparent, Nordholt said.

As a result, the Dutch have managed to preserve their self-image as a historically liberal, tolerant nation, distinct, say, from their German neighbors to the east. As with many other self-professed liberal nations, like the United States and Germany, Dutch enlightenment values have always clashed with baser, tribal impulses in the nation’s politics.

Geert Wilders’s anti-Islam rhetoric Islam recalls earlier eras of Dutch politics. His anxieties over a supposedly Islamicizing nation are distinct from imperial Dutch worries about Islam providing a vehicle for anti-colonial resistance. Nonetheless, historical ignorance in the Netherlands helps explain why so many Dutch view Islam as foreign even though the religion is deeply tied to their country’s history.

“People have no idea,” Nordholt said. “There is ongoing amnesia about the colonial past.”

Tuesday, 21 March 2017

Richard “Mac” McKinney, the Ball State senior and retired Marine sergeant, is the president of the Islamic Center of Muncie, Indiana, and he’s making efforts to “educate and inform” people about the true Islam.

This was not the case eight years ago. At that time, young McKinney says he used to hate Islam so much that he wanted to blow up a local mosque.

“A lot of people can’t believe it at first, or they’re just really surprised altogether when they hear me talk about this,” McKinney, 49, told USA TODAY College on Thursday, March 9.

“I used to have a lot of hatred [towards Islam], but it just took getting to know more about it and actually understanding what it was about for me.”

Serving for long years in the Middle East, the retired Marine sergeant spent most of his time “on the ground.”

“I have seen things I will never discuss with anyone,” McKinney said.

“I didn’t hate Islam then, but many of the things I saw were a reason why I felt the way I did later on.”

Coming home, he wanted to make a statement as a self-proclaimed nationalist. Destroying a mosque was part of his thoughts.

“I don’t think I could have hated Muslims much more, I mean I just really had a true hatred,” McKinney said.

“Nobody knew about what I was planning to do, though. I wanted to do this on my own – I had the place scoped out and everything. I didn’t even care if I got caught, I just expected that would be part of what happened anyway.”

Monday, 20 March 2017

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "Whoever wishes to (enter Paradise) should treat people as he wishes to be treated by them." (Sahih Muslim) The Prophet also said: "If you are kind to your neighbor, you will be a believer. If you like others to have what you want for yourself, you will be a Muslim." (Al-Tirmidhi)

Friday, 17 March 2017

Fareeha comes from a conservative Muslim community in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad where traditional gender roles still exist, with women mainly being in the home. Her Muslim faith-based school, nestled in the midst of this traditional community, subscribes to progressive attitudes towards women. The teachers at the school would make it a point to inspire their female pupils during their morning assembly and let them know that their education and career were just as important as those of their male counterparts. The school also introduced wushu solely to their female pupils so as to increase their confidence and also so that they could learn to defend themselves against the violence towards women in the country.

Having spent time in the community, I could definitely sense that there was a fear for girls' safety. On occasions I heardFareeha's neighbours talk about cases of violence within the community and there were regular television reports about cases of sexual harassment across the country. This created a situation in which families within the community would not allow their daughters to venture out alone, in part to safeguard them against any potential violence. This also curtails their freedom and independence, however, and to an extent accentuates the stereotypical gender roles within the community. Thus, places such as Fareeha's school really stood out for me, as they were not only trying to find a solution to the rising violence against women, but also doing it in a way so as to maintain their pupils' freedom.

Although the film centres on Fareeha's fight to attend and attempt to win the

national championships, at the heart of it lies a coming of age tale of a young women trying to challenge conservative traditions to gain her independence and her own identity.

Tuesday, 14 March 2017

And the wife of Pharaoh said, “A comfort of the eye for me and for you! Do not kill him; perhaps he may benefit us, or we may adopt him as a son.” And they perceived not.[Surat Al-Qasas, 28:8-9]

In these moments, Musa gained his second mother: she who did not birth him, but who raised him from infancy to become the man he was to be: a man of nobility and ethics, with a keen sense of justice. In the heart of Pharaoh’s palace, ‘Asiyah, the queen of Egypt, held her adopted son close and gave him the spiritual and intellectual education he needed to bring forth a revolution unlike any other.

Surrounded by wealth and luxury, protected by the privilege of his adopted parents’ power, Musa could have grown up to be spoiled and arrogant, entitled and apathetic to the plight of those who shared his blood. Undoubtedly, it was ‘Asiyah’s wisdom and compassion that guided him to be aware of himself as far more than just a pampered prince of Egypt.

Perhaps she sat at his bedside when he was a child and murmured to him the tale of how he was brought into her arms, the Nile River depositing the basket carrying its unexpected gift of a son.

Perhaps it was she who answered his questions about why he didn’t look like the other children, why he carried the stamp of Bani Isra’il on his features; why he was still alive, and safe, in the Pharaoh’s palace while every other year, the land was witness to a massacre of infant boys and the rivers flooded with the tears of their mothers.

Perhaps her heart broke every time she gazed upon the young boy who was the coolness of her eyes, remembering that her beloved almost-son had very nearly been one of those slaughtered children.

Perhaps she told him, her voice wavering with emotion, that the only power she had to stop the blood-lust of her husband lay in that moment when she held baby Musa in her arms and beseeched Pharaoh to, just once, save an innocent life.

No doubt that she treasured him all the more for it; no doubt that in that one moment of unimaginable courage in the face of a murder, ‘Asiyah taught Musa what it meant to stand up against injustice. It was ‘Asiyah, more than anyone else, who knew that silence and inaction from those in positions of influence would only lead to more horror.

It was ‘Asiyah who raised Musa: a queen who raised a Prophet; a woman who raised one of the greatest revolutionaries the world has ever known.

Tuesday, 7 March 2017

“Surah Adiyat,” my friend says. “I still remember the surah [chapter of the Quran] I was reading when he touched me. I was 8 years old.”

I ask my friend to identify the paedophile who abused him but my friend is reluctant to do so as his abuser is now dead.

However, I manage to find out from him that it was someone prominent in the Wimbledon area in south west London, possibly connected to Wimbledon Mosque, who “taught” Quran to children some 40 years ago.

For those of who you don’t know, Sir Jimmy Saville was a children’s presenter on the BBC for almost 20 years from the 1970s to the 1990s.

He used to have a children’s show called “Jim’ll Fix It” in which young children would write in to him and he would fulfill their dreams.

At the time, Jimmy Saville was every child’s hero, an angel who would make their dreams come true. I remember writing to him as a young boy, asking him to “fix” a trip to Disneyland for me.

The Queen honoured him with a knighthood (the “Sir” title) and he won dozens of other awards and accolades.

After he died in October 2011, over 450 people came forward to testify that he had sexually abused them. It appeared that Saville wasn’t just fulfilling the dreams of the children, he was fulfilling his own dreams.

For years the BBC was aware of these allegations but they refused to take them seriously. They thought that by brushing the matter under the carpet it would disappear.

And it’s just as well that Saville never replied to my letter. Instead of Disneyland I might well have ended up in Thailand if Jim had agreed to “fix” my dreams.

So the subject of this week’s blog post is to warn against Jimmy Saville imams (or Jameel Savilles if you like). By this mean I mean paedophiles disguised as imams.

Before I continue I just want to add that a few readers feel uncomfortable when I talk about taboo subjects on my blog.

Some fear that talking about such things “gives a bad name to Islam infront of non-Muslims.”

I think it is important that we remember that Islam is not an anti-aging beauty cream which we have to “sell” and “beg” people to buy from us. Islam is sufficiently robust to protect itself from image or reputation problems.

People who mock the Quran or the life of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) have been doing it for centuries, it isn’t something new. Yet it has still not prevented Islam from remaining the fastest growing religion in the world, especially in Western countries.

We should be careful to distinguish between criticism of un-Islamic practices of Muslims, and Islam.

We should be confident to talk about taboo subjects and problems that exist within the Muslim community because the first step in solving a problem is to admit that it exists.

If we brush these issues under the carpet and pretend that they do not exist, we prevent our community from growing and progressing.

During the years I was in prison in the UK there were many outwardly “devout” Muslim prisoners in the “VP” wings (living quarters).

Among them were Muslim clerics in prison for abusing children they were supposedly teaching the Quran.

“VP” is a prison acronym for “vulnerable prisoner”, which means paedophiles, rapists, rats and other prisoners who are vulnerable to being attacked by other prisoners because of the nature of what they have done.

In UK prisons, VPs live, exercise, work and associate completely separate to mainstream prisoners. When VPs move within the prison, they are cordoned off from mainstream prisoners. There is no contact between the two groups.

Rats (informants, grasses, snitches, etc.) are definitely bottom of the prison food chain because even paedophiles look down at rats and frequently attack rats in their wings.

While in prison I met a Muslim prisoner who told me that when his younger sister was 12, his mum used to send her for Quranic lessons with a man at a shop.

It turned out that the teacher had been touching her inappropriately.

When her brother (the prisoner telling me this story) found out he wanted to go to the man’s shop and smash his face in, but his mother prevented him because it would bring “be-izzati” (dishonour) upon their family.

And then some Muslim prisoners from Slough told me about the “mawlwi on a bike” – a man in Slough who used to go round to the houses of families on a bicycle to teach their children the Quran

It turned out that he was also inappropriately touching the children, inside their own homes when the parents were not looking.

In this case, the families were brave enough to believe their children and take action. This paedophile went to prison.

These are real stories about real people that happened to people that I know.

The reason I am unashamedly writing about this topic is because there is no room for paedophiles in our community. We should not be afraid to confront and stand up to paedophiles, whether they are prominent people in the community or not.

A minority of Catholic priests and Jewish rabbis are paedophiles and rapists, so that means that the majority are not.

Likewise, thankfully the majority of Muslim imams, clerics and Quranic teachers are also not paedophiles and rapists.

Paedophiles and rapists are most certainly not “men of God” so we have to protect our children from these monsters at all costs.

Here are three ways that might help to protect our children from these Jimmy Saville Imams.

1.Don’t live in denial and pretend that these things do not exist in the Muslim community.

In other words, don’t wait before it is too late and you psychologically damage your child for the rest of his or her life.

2.Prevention is better than cure

If you have young girls, send them to a female teacher to learn the Quran.

If you have to send them to a male teacher, make sure it is in a communal place where the children are never left alone with the teacher.

If the male teacher comes to your house, keep your child in your sight at all times. If he is genuine, he will not mind you keeping an eye on him.

If you cannot find a suitable teacher, consider online lessons via Skype or Facetime. Many families who successfully use this method.

3. Believe your child and do not be afraid to take action

Just like you can spot their lies about whether they pinched the biscuits or not, you can easily ascertain whether your child is making up a story as an excuse not to go to lessons, or whether it really happened.

If it turns out that something has happened, do not be afraid to take action to help protect other children from the monster.

Thursday, 2 March 2017

Abdul converted to Islam seven years ago. “I never felt I was a bad boy. I was exposed to drugs and different elements, but I was never violent,” he said. He “stumbled across” Islam and was instantly attracted to the sense of structure and rules governing every aspect of his life.

“I thought, ‘wow, this is amazing’. But I also enjoyed all those things in my life, and I didn’t want to let them go. It was a slow process – it took about three or four years to realise I was living a lie,” he said. In the film, he talks of “drifting and wandering” until he became a Muslim. “It changed my life entirely. I was turning my back on my previous life.”

Lee was shocked at his brother’s decision. “I knew he had some sort of secret, but I thought he was gay or something. I wasn’t expecting this. If he was going to be religious, I’d have expected him to go into Christianity, not become a Muslim. It’s not something you’d expect a white man to do.”

Lee had taken part in several EDL rallies “against Muslims in general – the way they treat women, paedophilia, things like that. I didn’t really have a bad view of Muslims – it was something for me to do when I was bored”.

The brothers grew up in Dudley. For nine months after he converted on Christmas Day 2009, Abdul commuted from his home town to Birmingham before moving to the city. “I remember putting on myjubba[ankle-length robe] and literally shaking before I opened my front door, wondering what people would think. White people used to stare at me, sometimes with a look of betrayal. But I don’t take any notice.”

Soon Abdul met Hina, a Pakistani Muslim, on Facebook. A week or so later they met in person; seven days after that they were married. “It was a leap of faith, trusting in God,” he said. It was also instant fatherhood for Abdul, then still in his 20s; Hina had two teenage sons and a daughter from a previous marriage. Abdul’s relationship with the boys, and his insistence on them being strictly observant Muslims, has not been easy. The couple now have another two children, two-year-old Zahra and baby Mohammed.

In the film, after Mohammed’s birth Abdul hosts a celebratory barbecue, inviting members of the local Muslim community – and Lee. In an awkward scene in the back garden, Lee observes that all the other men, including Abdul, are eating with their hands. “It’s like you’re going backwards,” he says.

Afterwards, he says: “I wouldn’t say I was comfortable, to be honest, I just did it for Shaun. He’s chose this path, I’ve chose [another], but he’s still my brother. I miss the Shaun I grew up with.”

I knew he had some sort of secret, but I thought he was gay or something.

Lee on his brother Abdul

Speaking to theObserver, Abdul said: “We disagree but we have mutual respect. I still feel close to him – blood is thicker than water. But I don’t know if I’m deluded.”

Khan spend six months persuading and reassuring the mosque elders before filming began. “We had to establish a relationship. They were saying ‘we trust you but how do we know it won’t be changed down the line?’ It was a difficult project. But I think there’s a sense of relief at the outcome,” she said.

Lee said his decision to take part in the film was “purely for my brother”, but added that the process had made him more tolerant of Muslims.

Abdul’s motive was “wanting our own voice to be heard rather than other people creating news about us”. He added: “I want people to start a conversation, just break the ice, just talk to us. Even the skinhead white guy. But British people won’t ask, they prefer to let things build up under the skin. We just need to communicate with each other and break down the barriers.”